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No department should operate in a silo -- especially not the marketing department. This team is responsible for spreading the word and building awareness of your brand, and they need input and collaboration from the full organization to bring their creative visions to life.

Although marketing is an investment, it's one that has the potential for a big return when everyone gets involved. One of the best ways to ensure that return is for the leadership team, particularly the company's CEO, to offer their direct support for marketing initiatives. We asked a panel of Forbes Communications Council members how CEOs can help their marketing teams succeed. Here's what they had to say.

These communications executives share the ways in which CEOs can support their marketing departments.All photos courtesy of Forbes Councils members.

1. Create fluidity in the budget.

CEOs need to provide budget flexibility and proper budget allocation to ensure that the top-performing marketing channels are adequately funded. When budgets are locked in months in advance, there is limited fluidity to shift or add budget to the initiatives that are truly driving business results. -Kerry Curran,Catalyst, a GroupM and WPP Agency

2. Bridge gaps and create team alignment.

Marketing team responsibilities span various departments and have a wide impact on the entire organization. To offer support, CEOs should bring multiple teams to the table to align goals and help establish the right processes that meet objectives and ensure marketing activities are leveraged to their maximum potential. -Alyssa Kleinman,CipherHealth

3. Gain actionable insights and follow through on them.

At Ironistic, we encourage open communication and feedback. Listening is great, but there must be follow through to evolve as needed. CEOs can gain a lot of insight by listening to their marketing teams and putting together a plan of action to improve innovation, creativity and efficiency. Taking action on voiced concerns provides support to the team and enhances the organization as a whole. -Hannah Taylor,Ironistic

4. Provide a personal vision for authenticity.

Meaningful efforts and results in my career have developed through conversations with CEOs on their visions for the company/people and their personal legacies. Tapping into a deeper story on mission and legacy adds a powerful layer and filter for marketing efforts. Authentic, thoughtful leadership resonates with teammates, clients and the press. Dedicate time for personal vision conversations. -Karen Baker,PGAV Destinations

5. Give the team room to fail.

Marketing is an ever-evolving function. To stay ahead of the game, marketers need to be able to try new things. Sometimes those things won't work. If we work in a culture where everything is expected to be a success, the team will ultimately stop trying. When CEOs give their marketing teams the freedom to experiment and learn from failure, it will lead to larger successes in the long run. -Sarah Nunes,Vistaprint

6. Build bounded autonomy.

Building bounded autonomy means saying, "Here are the boundaries (budget, timeframe, etc.). If you want to leave the bounds, first convince me why, but otherwise I trust you'll get us to the finish line." Asking for clarification and rationale is expected, but rather than prescribing tactics, the best CEOs trust their teams to accomplish the organization's goals. -Amanda Hinski,Frost Valley YMCA

7. Be available.

The most important thing I do to support my marketing team is to be available. I'm available when they need approvals, one-on-ones, conferences they think I should speak at, video shoots, brainstorming sessions, etc. -Stuart Draper,Stukent

Visibility into our organization’s strengths, challenges and performance helps ensure our marketing efforts are aligned with our larger business goals. Every month, Sprout’s CEO Justyn Howard openly discusses this information at all-hands and marketing leadership meetings, enabling us to maintain focus on high-value initiatives that impact our business the most and recalibrate as needed. -Andrew Caravella,Sprout Social

When a CEO sits down with the marketing team and helps develop a strong vision for marketing’s role and contribution to the company, that can have a big impact on not only the direct team but business goals as well. When a CEO has a clear and thorough understanding of what the marketing team does, it helps remove barriers and accomplish goals. -G'Nai Blakemore,Mattress Firm

10. Help the team align their KPIs with overall business growth.

Marketing functions need to be empowered to make decisions that support top-line metrics. If marketing KPIs are aligned with business growth, decision making becomes intuitive. Many times, vanity metrics govern the marketing function, and it is the joint responsibility of the marketing leader and the CEO to make sure all tactics help move the needle in the right direction. -Almitra Karnik,CleverTap

11. Get involved in the content creation process.

We ask our CEO to engage with the marketing team on two ongoing initiatives. The first is to provide blog content for us about the industry, leadership or culture. We ask them to avoid hard selling our products or services, but rather to reference our services when it provides clarity to the content. The second ask is to be available for video materials, case studies and other various marketing pieces. -Scott Schoeneberger,bluewatertech.com

12. Ensure representation of all departments at the table.

CEOs can ensure that leaders from all departments -- marketing, sales, IT, etc. -- are at the table to share perspectives and align on objectives for key projects, both at an organizational level as well as an executional level. It's a powerful way to show support for the marketing team and their efforts, as coordination or approval for projects may be accelerated due to improved collaboration. -Alina Morkin,Voices.com

13. Treat marketing like any other profit center.

Too often, marketing is treated like a cost center, but held accountable as a profit center. This disparity causes other teams to think they are “doing marketing a favor” when helping with something, and often leads to deprioritizing things. The CEO can help by making sure the rest of the company understands the importance of the marketing programs and giving them the resources to be successful. -Christina Del Villar,Udacity

Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization for senior-level communications and public relations executives. Find out if you qualify at forbescommcouncil.com/qualify